Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Olympic Values: Promoting Languages through the Olympics

With London 2012 nearly upon us, the Olympics provide a fantastic
opportunity to reflect on what makes Britain what it is through exploring
cultural ‘otherness’. Being confronted with ‘otherness’ forces us to look at
who we are and focus on our similarities with others just as much as we
consider our differences.

Many language activities inspired by Olympic values will also
naturally develop SEAL skills, as there are clear overlaps between the two. The
Olympic and Paralympic values mentioned in all Olympic literature including The
Olympic Charter are: Respect, Excellence, Friendship, Inspiration,
Determination, Equality and Courage. From a linguistic point of view, these
values will be easy to identify in teaching materials, as most of them are
cognates in French. In order to understand Olympic-related texts, it is also
useful to know the three levels described in the Olympic Charter as the steps
to the Olympic Ideal, ‘a philosophy of Life which places sport at the service
of humankind’.

The first level aims at encouraging effort (striving for
excellence), preserving human dignity (demonstrating respect) and developing
harmony (celebrating friendship), whereas the second level focuses on the
education of young people through sport and the promotion of Olympic values.
Finally, the third level articulates the vision of the Olympic Ideal as a
‘contribution to building a better world through sport’.

There are considerable overlaps between these aims and the mission
statements and core purpose of schools. The Olympics can therefore be used
quite naturally by teachers to raise the profile of school values through
discussing Olympic values in different lessons.

Pierre de Coubertin said: ‘The most important thing […] is not to
win but to take part […] in the same way that in life the most important thing
is not to triumph but to put up a good fight’. One of the strongest Olympic
messages is therefore that the endeavour can be more important than the final
result, encouraging resilience and what Carol Dweck would call a ‘growth
mindset’- a focus on self-improvement rather than on unfocused talent as a
badge of honour.

The students will need to reflect on the Olympic values and
develop their vocabulary in English to be able to discuss them. Once students
are confident about this vocabulary, they should be able to transfer it easily
into foreign languages such as French or Spanish.

A key element in making good use of these opportunities is the
need for a creative approach. There are many symbols linked with the Olympics
and depending on how creative and open-ended the activities are, the student
outcomes will range from illustrating to analysing and integrating Olympic
values. For instance, looking at the Olympic rings can be used as an
introduction to teaching about countries as well as looking at continents and
colours. Flags can then be used as a resource to discuss the people and history
of the countries, with students finally looking at Olympic symbolism to design
their own flag or badge.

The Olympic motto ‘plus vite, plus haut, plus fort’ is a fantastic opportunity to look at adjectives and
comparatives, while the many Olympic mascots provide a real-life context to
apply dates, word order, adjectival agreement and to revise parts of the body.
Describing and analysing official posters also makes students reflect on the
image conveyed by high-profile sporting events such as the Olympics and on
Olympic values such as friendship or excellence. Olympic values can also be
promoted by looking at the topic of daily routine and exploring issues like
fair trade linked with the actual goods produced for the Olympic games.

As regards overall planning, Olympic values can be promoted
through themed activities or activities embedded in the existing curriculum. A
mix of both approaches with a one-off event to make it memorable will probably
be the most effective. A series of lessons on the Olympic theme is likely to
provide a motivating new context for the introduction or the consolidation of
numbers, countries, colours, foods and healthy living routines. In addition,
the Olympic values will need to be embedded in the schemes of work and highlighted
to students on a regular basis for them to be able to make the link.

RESPECT

Respect is a value that is being promoted in all schools, whether
it be self-respect, respect for others or respect for our environment. The
respect agenda in school has been tied in very closely with the quest for
improving students’ behaviour and academic standards in general, as highlighted
in schemes like the Rights Respecting Schools programme

supported by UNICEF.

The Olympics can also be used as a way to present respect as a
means of combating racism. Respecting differences is key for students to derive maximum
benefit from the language curriculum and it is also essential for them not to
feel that differences are a threat to their own identity.

Throughout the year, a number of opportunities can be provided by
looking at differences in names, style of handwriting,food, clothes, houses,
school curriculum and rules, music and traditionsin general. When looking at differences, similarities will need to
be highlighted in order to encourage students to be positive about differences
and not to dismiss them as strange idiosyncrasies.

can provide clues about
their history and culture. Students can look at names of athletes from
different countries as well as focus on trends from specific countries like
French or Spanish-speaking

countries.

This can be
reinforced through music. For instance, the song by the French singer Zazie, Tout le monde il est beau,presents a wide range of names
of people all linked by their French nationality. A simple activity is to get
students to match up the names with their country of origin.

The topic of Food can be approached in different ways, such as
looking at the typical diet of an athlete or considering the foods and food
habits of different countries. The idea is for students to challenge their own ideas about what
‘foreign’ food is like and to accept differences without being judgmental. They
can be given pictures and names of foods to research or be asked to search for
items of food on the internet with the aim of finding the ingredients contained
in the different dishes.

Similar activities can be done using national costumes, together
with an understanding of when these costumes are actually worn. This free iphoneapp is great resource for this.

Whether with food or clothes, there is great potential for
students to practise extended writing skills in the foreign language by
describing what the items are and what they have learnt about the different
items. There are also opportunities for students to discuss the work
produced as well as evaluate their learning and the development of their SEAL
skills through the activities.

In conclusion, I would encourage all colleagues to consider the
whole range of educational opportunities provided by the Olympics and make a true effort towards
embracing the Olympic Ideal as a philosophy of life.

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About Me

Head of Modern Languages in the North West of England,French & Spanish specialist with experience of Primary French & Spanish, German & EAL, Oldham SLN Lead Teacher, Regional Secondary Adviser 2009-10 for the Association for Language Learning and member of ALL's executive council, Language Consultant and Trainer for Links into Languages (until March 2011), Proofreader, qualified Translator and Interpreter (ESUCA, Toulouse University, France).